What next for Coventry City?

By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

One of football’s proudest clubs with a great tradition is heading for liquidation and while it currently still exists, the heart and soul of Coventry City Football Club has been well and truly ripped out.

Two relegations, two battles with administration and a move away from their home of the Ricoh Arena have driven the club to the brink of extinction.  All of this is down to horrific financial mismanagement infront of the eyes of their loyal supporters.

The question now is what next for this once great club?

The Sky Blues (badge pictured) always had a knack for defying the odds in the 1980s and 1990s.  They won one of the greatest FA Cup finals in history in 1987, beating the mighty Tottenham 3-2 at Wembley Stadium under the guidance of manager John Sillett.

They survived in the top flight of English football for 34 years, despite some near-misses with relegation, especially in 1997 when victory again at Tottenham kept them alive and sent Sunderland down.

Four years later though, defeat at local rivals Aston Villa ended their time in the Premier League.  When Paul Merson hit the winning goal that day, Sky Sports commentator Rob Palmer’s words were: “That’s the killer, that is the killer, Coventry City are going down.”  Since then, they’ve never looked like returning to former glory.

Leaving Highfield Road, which had become the first all-seater stadium back in 1981 for the Ricoh Arena in 2005, the club only avoided administration by minutes in 2007 and lost their Championship status in April 2012.

Last season the club did go into administration and were docked 10 points in March, ending 16^th in their first season in the third tier of English football since 1967.  It has got a whole lot worse since.

The club’s much criticised owners SISU have done nothing but drive the club almost into a coffin.  They have sacked manager after manager, not provided funds to improve the playing squad and been involved in a bitter dispute over rent ownership of the ground.  Coventry claimed they couldn’t afford to pay the rent to stay at the Ricoh Arena and this summer, Otium Entertainment Group, who were appointed owners by the recent administrators, agreed a controversial move to groundshare with Northampton Town at Sixfields.

It means the Sky Blues fans have no proper home, and if they want to continue supporting their club at football matches, they must make the trip to a town that might hold the British Formula One Grand Prix, and have a University with one of the best employability rates for students after graduation but offers very little encouragement for the supporters.

On Friday, creditors rejected a deal to ease the club’s crippling debts, meaning liquidation is all but a guarantee now.  The Football League stepped in on Friday afternoon, but only after sitting back for months and months and allowing the club to almost literally go down the drainpipe.

A 10-point deduction was imposed and with no new signings, relegation to League Two if they even survive the campaign looks like a probability.

In a statement released to Sky, the Football League was quoted as saying: “The application comes under the ‘exceptional circumstances’ provision of The Football League’s Insolvency Policy and the acceptance of the 10-point deduction allows Coventry City to start the League One season despite the failure of its CVA.

“This enables Coventry City to continue its membership of The Football League and participate in the 2013-14 season.”

Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Crawley Town showed that the playing squad still has bundles of team spirit, but several supporters did get onto the field of play and were subsequently arrested for their actions.  However you have to sympathise for how they feel as their beloved club crumbles around them.

Midfielder Steve Froggatt, who had a successful time with the club in the late 1990s that took him to the brink of the England setup, told the Daily Mail: “What’s happening to Coventry City is breaking my heart.  It’s a travesty, the fans are furious and they don’t know who to blame – my answer would be to get everyone in a room and bang their heads together until they come up with a solution.

“There are a lot of questions which need answers and you have to look at the people who have been running the club and wonder how it happened.”

SISU have not given the club a second thought, and as a neutral, it is horrifying to see another club all but go to the wall.  Nothing seems to have been learnt from the financial mess at Portsmouth back in 2009.

Pompey, former FA Cup winners as recent as 2008 have slipped into the fourth tier of English football, suffered two administrations and faced several winding up threats.  Happily, the club is now owned by the fans, those who care about their existence.  Hopefully, something can be done for Coventry too because no-one who supports or plays for them deserves this.

The financial issues have hit Scotland too, with Rangers well-documented problems last year, and Hearts facing similar financial peril.  Bury came close to going bust in April in England, whilst other sides like Chester, Halifax and Rushden & Diamonds were wound up and had to start again as different associations.

If something can’t be done, then the Coventry fans might have to consider this alternative.  It doesn’t mean that this is a bad thing.  AFC Wimbledon’s rise from the ashes of Wimbledon moving to Milton Keynes and becoming the MK Dons has to be praised, and that’s from someone who lives close by to MK’s stadium in Bletchley.  Chester are now back in the Conference after back-to-back promotions and look to be seeing light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

Coventry are due to play Bristol City at ‘home,’ meaning Sixfields next Sunday.  For their fans to go and watch their side play 35 miles away in Northampton is totally unworkable.  We probably haven’t heard the last of the matter. 

Sadly their season already looks in ruins, with battles in court likely to dominate any action on the football field.

I agree with Steve Froggatt.  Heads need to be banged together and quickly, as it is a sorry and dire mess.  It is difficult to see a happy ending for Coventry City but ultimately, there is always hope, no matter how small that sounds at the moment.